HIGH SCHOOL BOYS BASKETBALL: Hun tips Peddie for spot in MAPL final

HIGHTSTOWN — Every basketball team tries to get as many people involved, especially as the season progresses.

Those teams that do it well tend to be successful, so it is a general goal of many a team.

The Hun and Peddie School boys teams have prided themselves in that style of play this season, but with the Falcons roster depleted by injuries, it was the Raiders, who came away with a 49-38 victory yesterday in the semifinals of the Mid-Atlantic Prep League Tournament, which Peddie hosted.

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Hun spread the ball around and got plenty of balance, both offensively and defensively, in pulling away from the Falcons early.

Fergus Duke led the way with 13 points. Grant Mackay followed with 10 points, and Michael Bourke came off the bench to contribute nine points.

“Absolutely, that’s what we’ve been striving for,” said Bourke, a 6-foot-2 junior guard. “Today I think we came out with a sense of urgency. We’ve been playing a lot of good defense lately and today we were making shots.”

“I think my teammates found me pretty well today, and I just played my game,” Bourke continued. “Everybody played well.”

Everybody included Peddie postgraduate point guard DeAndre Noble-Haywood, who all but put the Falcons on his back in the absence of senior backcourt mate Jonah Brooks, who had his season come to an end when he tore his anterior cruciate ligament earlier in the week.

“Right now, our guys are digging down and being as scrappy as they can be,” said Peddie head coach Joe Rulewich, whose 15-man roster has almost been cut in half because of injuries. “Today we got outscrapped. Hun outscrapped us and outworked us.”

The Raiders held the Falcons to single-digit scoring in three of the four quarters, including the first two as Hun opened a 28-14 halftime lead. Even a game-high 22 points from Noble-Haywood and nine more from Wes Dickinson were not enough to get Peddie closer than seven points down the stretch.

The Raiders will return to the Falcons’ home court at 6 p.m. today for the MAPL championship game versus top-seeded Lawrenceville, which defeated fourth-seeded Blair Academy, 56-51.

Hun will then return to Peddie once more at 6 p.m. Wednesday when the two meet again in the first round of the NJISAA Prep A Tournament.

HIGHTSTOWN — The Blues held the lead until Fergus Duke (15 points) hit a 3-pointer to knot the score at 35 with 10 seconds left. Then, after Hill missed the front end of a 1-and-1, Hashim Moore raced to the other end and hit a layup with 0.1 seconds remaining for the first-round win.